Deadmau5 freezes social media after anti-Bieber tirade

Deadmau5, a leading force in electronic music, abruptly froze his presence Thursday on social media after unleashing a furious critique of pop star Justin Bieber.

The house DJ, whose often feisty Twitter feed has more than three million followers, deleted publicly visible postings since August and made other messages private.

Deadmau5 did not offer a reason but a day earlier he tweeted that he was debating whether to "kill off" his stage persona, in which he wears an oversized mouse-shaped mask.

The DJ, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, earlier this week raised eyebrows when he described himself as an "angry Twitter guy" in a passionate condemnation of another successful Canadian musician, Bieber.

Deadmau5 had tweeted a link to a profanity-laden video in which the DJ said that Bieber did not deserve credit for his chart-topping new album, "Purpose."

He accused Bieber of latching on to electronic music fads and said that "Purpose" would more accurately be called an album by its main producer, the Los Angeles DJ Skrillex.

"I can accept that his album is probably good," Deadmau5 said.

"What I'm mad about is that none of this is" Bieber's, he said, referring to him with derogatory names.

"What did you do?" he asked rhetorically of Bieber. "Oh, you sang on it. Well, you know, I can credit you for having to be able to hold a pitch on two syllables throughout an entire 75-minute ... album."

Deadmau5 did not appear to be withdrawing from areas beyond social media. He is scheduled to play Friday at the Barclays Center in New York and has hinted at a new album in 2016.

Deadmau5 himself was recently been on the receiving end of criticism about musical merits.

At the Governors Ball festival in New York in June, rocker Ryan Adams -- angry that sound from Deadmau5 bled over to his stage -- accused the DJ of making "robot music" on an iPhone.

The two artists quickly reconciled -- over Twitter.